Friday, May 14, 2010

After the domination in Spain last weekend by the Red Bull cars, who will claim the twenty-five points for taking the chequered flag in Monaco. The Monte Carlo circuit is completely different to the Circuit de Catalunya and its long straights and wide run off areas with this weekend’s street circuit having zero room for error and no long straights to speak of. Who will win the most prestigious Formula One race of the season? BetRepublic.com previews the action here.

Outright Race Winner Odds (supplied by William Hill):

• Sebastian Vettel – 11/5

• Fernando Alonso – 7/2

• Mark Webber – 4/1

• Lewis Hamilton – 4/1

• Jenson Button – 10/1

• Michael Schumacher – 16/1

• Felipe Massa – 16/1

• Nico Rosberg – 20/1

• Robert Kubica – 22/1

• Adrian Sutil – 66/1

• Vitaly Petrov – 150/1

• Rubens Barrichello – 200/1

• Vitantonio Liuzzi – 200/1

• Nico Hulkenburg – 250/1

• Sebastien Buemi – 250/1

• Kamui Kobayashi – 300/1

• Jamie Alguersuari – 300/1

• Pedro de la Rosa – 400/1

• Lucas di Grassi – 1500/1

• Heikki Kovalainen – 1500/1

• Timo Glock – 1500/1

• Jarno Trulli – 1500/1

• Karun Chandhok – 2000/1

• Bruno Senna – 2000/1

The Monaco Grand Prix is the jewel in the Formula One crown. It forms one part of the unofficial Triple Crown of Motorsport alongside the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 hours and is the one Formula One race that every driver wants to win. The current king of Monaco is Michael Schumacher, who has won the race on five different occasions. He is joint second with Graham Hill in total Monaco race wins and just one win behind Aryton Senna. McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have won the last two races, while Fernando Alonso took the top step of the podium in 2007 and 2006. The only other driver still on the grid to have won in Monaco is Lotus driver Jarno Trulli who won in 2004 in a Renault. Will any of these drivers add to their totals or will we see a Red Bull car take its first Monaco GP win this year?

Despite his poor showing in Spain, Sebastian Vettel is the clear favourite with William Hill to take the race win on his third trip to Monaco. Vettel failed to finish the race last year after crashing on lap fourteen and he will hope to finish the race this year. However, the way that he has been driving the car has come under question this week after he suffered more issues with his car in Barcelona. He broke the front wing and abused his breaks so that they stopped working correctly and should he be so hard on his car in Monaco his race will surely end in the barriers for a second year running.

After taking the victory in Barcelona Mark Webber will be in a highly confident mood as he looks to improve on his best ever finish of third place on his debut in 2005. His, and Vettel’s, car had some major aerodynamic upgrades for the last race and those upgrades gave them a 20kmph advantage over the other top teams in places on the Circuit de Catalunya. Monaco is all about aerodynamics over top end pace and with the way that these upgrades aided Webber it is likely that he will be on the pace again this weekend. As a result of this, coupled with my uncertainty over Vettel’s driving style, leads me to believe that Webber will win the race this weekend.

Who else will be joining the Australian on the podium? It’ll all boil down to who qualifies best out of the McLaren drivers, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher, as the tight, twisty street circuit does not offer too many overtaking opportunities. Of the four drivers Hamilton is most likely to be able to recover from a poor qualifying position as Button, Alonso and Schumacher have found it difficult to pass other drivers this season. However, Hamilton is tough on his tyres and that may cause him problems. For this reason alone I will be backing Hamilton to finish on the podium at odds of 10/11.

Michael Schumacher managed to finish fourth in Spain last week and he looked more like the Schumacher of old after Mercedes made a raft of upgrades to their car. While these upgrades have adversely affected Nico Rosberg the changes have helped Schumacher find his feet again and he comfortably kept ahead of world champion and world championship leader Jenson Button and his F-duct for almost fifty laps of the Barcelona circuit. Having won in Monaco on five occasions Schumacher knows the track like the back of his hand and with the additional speed and control afforded by the upgrades to his car he will be in the hunt for major points again this weekend, so I will be backing him at 5/6 to finish in the top six.

This race, as always, promises to be an excellent spectacle – especially this year as the faster cars at the front will have lots more traffic to pass due to the three newer teams – so keep up to date all weekend long by visiting the BetRepublic.com Formula One Motor Sports Betting Stadium for all the best bets before, during and after qualifying and the race.